The Your Scottish Archives Glossary defines archaic words and phrases, mostly Scots law terminology, commonly found in documents and records in Scotland’s archives. If you think a word or phrase should be added to the glossary, or an existing entry could be defined better, please contact us at your@scottisharchives.org.uk.
You can also use the Dictionary of the Scots Language as a further resource at https://dsl.ac.uk/ for Scots words and phrases (including legal terminology).
To find a term within the glossary, click on the initial letter of the word you are looking for, then select the relevant syllable segment displayed below.
Example: to find the term “roup” select section “R” then sub-section “Ro”
the process of determining whether records have enduring value (and therefore should be retained in an archive service) or have legal, administrative or evidential value (and therefore should be retained for a set period within a records management service)
the sentence of a court affecting a debtor’s heritable property, as a consequence of which that property would be sold to pay the debt. Apprising was replaced by adjudication, because it was too abrupt for popular taste.